


Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning

by ViscerallyLoumen



Category: 13 Reasons Why (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:27:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25599535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViscerallyLoumen/pseuds/ViscerallyLoumen
Summary: Alex misdial Zach when calling in the middle of the night after another nightmare.
Relationships: Charlie St. George/Alex Standall
Comments: 7
Kudos: 31





	Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning

**Author's Note:**

> My first work in this fandom and also been a very long time since I wrote anything so please be gentle.

Alex shook awake, cold sweat drenching his broken body. The red numbers on his alarm clock taunting him by letting him know that it was still the middle of the night. 2am barely an hour after the last time he woke from yet another dream. He wondered if Jessica was also visited by the ghostly presence of Bryce every night or if it was another special treat he got from his fucked-up brain. He had to make it through another day of school tomorrow pretending to have nothing to do with the local rapist’s disappearance, trying to appear sane when his body was running on barely any sleep and a crushing guilty conscience. He reached for his phone as his mind was still reeling. It couldn’t call Jessica she made it clear she wanted little to do with him and everyone else was already stretched thin with looking after Tyler. It left Zach, sure it wasn’t long ago he popped a boner on him and that was attached to another thing he was not contemplating right now but his friend had been there for him with his PT so maybe he wouldn’t mind being awaken in the middle of the night, sure Zach, himself deleted his own number from his phone so he would no longer hear about his masturbating but Alex wasn’t an amateur he wrote his number down on a black notebook that he uses to remember things when his brain was failing him. He grabbed it from his bedside table and angled his phone to see the numbers then entered them in. Waiting all jittery as the line seems to take too long to connect and making him doubt if it was even a good idea but all shadows in his room were caving in on him and his skin was crawling with the remnant of his nightmare and his breathing was getting more and more erratic by the second.  
‘Hello’ a sleep rumpled voice tickled his ear  
‘Zach, I know you said not to call bu….’he threw his words fast at the other boy he just needed to get it all out  
‘wait I think…’  
‘No man you got to help me I think I am dying, I can’t breathe when I close my eyes and you just have to help me, please’ He pleaded as an headache started forming at the corner of his temples.  
‘Okay tell me what you can see’ his friend asked him  
‘What the fuck do I know? It’s the middle of the night’ he shouted, anger winning out in his frustration.  
‘We just gonna breathe together, okay? Just slowly in for 5 and out for 5, Okay?’ his friend’s voice was so calm and controlled that Alex felt powerless but to go along with the over-exaggerated breathing. His heart slowed as he regained control over his breathing. He felt calmer but the idea of falling asleep still felt unlikely with the residual energy of his panic still cursing through his body.  
‘I should let you get some sleep, both of us can’t be up all night’ Alex was just about to press the end call button  
‘Did you know that once I tried to bribe my teacher to give me better grades by giving her cookies?’  
Alex had no idea Zach had ever done any baking but by the sound of his story he was pretty awful at it. Alex found himself laughing along with Zach’s adorable giggling at the end of the line. He had no idea when he went from listening to sound asleep but next thing he knew his alarm was blaring and he still had his phone clutched in his hand , batteries dead like maybe his friend talked him to slumber and maybe even listened to him sleep until the batteries ran out. It warmed a part of him, right under his breastbone knowing that someone would be there for him so caringly. He really needed to thank Zach.  
Feeling rested for the first time in so long helped Alex not lean so heavily on his cane the next morning. He didn’t find Zach until lunchtime and as they started their lunch he felt nearly shy in thanking him like they shared an intimate moment in the middle of the night that the canteen harsh lights would damage somehow, like seeing Zach’s face in this moment didn’t feel the same than just whispers in the night. He decided to just blurt it, thanking him for his help and judging by Zach’s expression he maybe shouldn’t have mention it at all, it was like confusion had an illegitimate child with concern spread on his usually handsome features. Alex had no idea how to react and was just about to snap at his friend to stop giving him that look, he had enough of those in the corridors when Zach blurted out that they never spoke last night, that he’d been round Chloe’s before going straight home and his phone had remained silent the entire time. He even went as far as pulling said object from his pocket and go through his phone history to show him he was telling the truth -no call from him or anyone else for that matter. Alex knew he’d spoken to Zach, he was not crazy, he pulled out his own mobile and proceeded to shove it at Zach to prove that no it wasn’t his TBI, he spoke to …. somebody. Temporary elation at not being even more fucked-up that he first thought quickly turned to dread when he realised, he spoke to somebody about his nightmare about Bryce…. of killing Bryce??? What if he confessed his sin to a total stranger, what if he said his name and now the police were on their way, oh god what if his dad was the one that had to arrest him… he knew he was starting to panic and spin out and Zach’s attempts at calming him down were a lot less successful that the mystery caller…oh the irony….Zach finally forced him to breathe between his knees whilst they came up with a plan of action. First, they needed to know who he called. Zach entered the number in his own phone as he had a class with Clay that afternoon and he thought he could maybe get him to track it but as he finished entering the digits Zach let out a surprised gasp.  
‘You called Charlie’ Zach announced like that should mean something good for Alex  
‘Who’s Charlie? I don’t know any Charlie’  
‘Charlie St George, our new Quaterback’  
‘Oh my god I told a jock that I killed Bryce?’ Alex was on the verge of another panic attack as Zach promised to get Charlie’s phone at Football practice and erased his number and made him promise to just stay away from him like Alex hadn’t spend all his time since Freshman year trying to avoid all jocks and yet here he was best friend with one. He spend the rest of the day on high alert, expecting the police to come and arrest him at any moment, snapped at Clay and Ani as they asked him more questions about Bryce like it was their personal mission to make his day even worse he really had to fight with himself not to use his cane on them to get them out of his way but at least it got this Charlie situation to the back of his mind and since he was his turn to babysit Tyler that evening and over the weekend he somehow started to relax about the entire situation, helped by the fact that Zach assured him he deleted his number from Charlie’s phone and the younger man was none the wiser. So, of course it was the perfect time for him after Luke’s arrest to walk himself right to a group of jocks to ask what happened, to find out if he could somehow avoid suspicion about taking steroids. He went right for the taller one, he never saw him before but out of them he seemed the most palatable, must have been his boyish good looks that made him his initial target on getting information. He was so inside his own head as he listened to his response to make sure he had a way out of being the next arrest that he didn’t paid attention as much as he should have to the voice he was hearing. As he started walking away the jock gently reached for his sleeve and just said ‘You’re him, the voice on the phone’ Alex span around fast, his heart beating in his ears and just grabbed an handful of varsity jacket and as forcefully as he could pulled the jock into a closet with him. A cleaning closet to be specific with a flickering light and an unpleasant smell of bleach. He was literally breathing down his neck as he trapped the taller boy against the wall.  
‘You’re Alex, right?’ Charlie asked him, seemingly comfortable despite the circumstances. Alex’s head on the other hand was spinning. He knew his name now, what else could he possibly know.  
‘What do you know?’ he asked, his grip on the varsity jacket unrelenting  
‘I know that you’re a good person, according to Zach anyway and I am sorry that you feel like shit or whatever’ Charlie said, his blue eyes kind and comforting. Alex slowly let go of him and stepped back, not that he could get far since the closet was on the small side which made Alex suddenly super conscious of how close he was standing to the other boy.  
‘I won’t tell anyone, some secrets are worth keeping’ Charlie declared, a gentle hand smoothing his hoodie. ‘Keep my number just in case Zach don’t answer I have more stories to send you to sleep with’ he quipped, a sunshine smile overtaking his face. Alex felt powerless to do anything but dumbly smile back at the other boy.  
‘You should leave first’ Alex said, needing to free himself from this boy that seem to see him clearer than he was comfortable with.  
‘Yeah I guess people will talk about you dragging me into a closet enough as it is’ Charlie joked, a bright twinkle in his eyes.  
‘I am not gay’ Alex stammered, face flushing without his consent  
‘Yeah me neither, totally bi though’ Charlie said as he opened the door and let himself out leaving behind a gobsmacked Alex. Charlie was maybe more dangerous that Alex first thought.


End file.
